Chris Blackhurst, editor of the Independent

Blackhurst told the conference that he feared there would be "a deluge" of criticism about the press the instant the Leveson report is published, but the Newsnight cock-up over Lord McAlpine may, in some way, work in the industry's favour.

"My big fear is that in two weeks' time, if it is two weeks' time [when the Leveson report comes out], we are just going to deluged, and fortunately, with the weird turn of events at the BBC, it might not be as shrill as it would have been a few days ago," he said.

Philippa Kennedy, Sun ombudsman

She reveals that she recently resigned from the National Union of Journalists after 40 years over the union's support for statutory underpinning for a new press regulator. The NUJ, she said, no longer represents her.

David Price, solicitor and QC

Price launched a scathing attack on the decision to appoint Lord Justice Leveson, a criminal lawyer, to head the judicial inquiry into the culture and practices of the press in the first place. Price, who is currently representing the Newsnight editor Peter Rippon, said Leveson "knows nothing about libel, nothing about privacy; he's a criminal lawyer" and "lawyers create nothing", but merely react in black and white terms to cases put before them. He added that he would "never have trusted Leveson" to understand the industry and fears the worst from his report on the future of press regulation.

Lord Inglewood, chairman of the House of Lords communications committee

The Tory politician and former government whip said he is vehemently opposed to state interference in the media.

"You have got to make sure, as someone once said to me, the sticky fingers of the politicians are kept out of the candy jar. We need to subdivide that into to two types – first the government; and the second group is parliamentarians and frankly you want neither of them having anything to do with the regulation of the press at all," said Inglewood.

He told the conference that the Tories who last week came out in favour of some sort of legislation to curb the press, including Sir Malcolm Rifkind, had been reined in by the party and told to wait until the report was published before taking a view.

"We can probably get it done in three to six months, as opposed to three years, to ram some sort statute through the legislation process with every twist and turn subject to legal challenge," said Black.

"What we are not going to go back to are the days of off-the-record discussions," said Trotter, who is responsible for ACPO guidelines for media relations. "It's not going to be a meeting with a detective sergeant down the pub. That's not going to happen. It's on the record from a named source."

If this wasn't explicit enough, Trotter added: "I don't like sentences that start 'source close to the investigation', it shouldn't be like that."

He said the Metropolitan police had been brought low by the phone-hacking scandal last summer and lost its commissioner, an assistant commissioner and a communications chief, so it would be no surprise if there was "a chilling effect" for a period of time.

Mike Gilson, editor of the Belfast Telegraph

"161," was Gilson's first comment. That's the number of press officers employed at Stormont, he said, pointing out this is just for the Northern Ireland government and does not include press officers in the health service, police service or education service. "We are living in a shut-down society."

Gilson added it is now more difficult than ever to get information from the public sector because press officers are being put in between the journalist and the person they want to get the information from. Before, he said the head teacher or chief of a health unit would be known to a journalist, sometimes now you can't even get their names.

Email communication was an important part of this "shut down" and allows officials to hide away from inquisition by the press.

"Journalism by email – I think that's a real big concern. That it is all email communication now and, actually, where's the secondary question, where's the to-ing and fro-ing. Some of this is being lost and we have to be really careful as journalists that we don't accept it and also it should be pointed out.

"That is one of the things we don't see in the media enough is when this is happening, it should be exposed and we should say he refused to comment, this was by email, this was a statement by police on behalf of all women. This needs to be put out so the public have a different view than the view they have currently got."

Professor John Horgan, Irish press ombudsman

Horgan said he disliked the "overuse of the word regulator" because it raises public expectations as to what it could achieve.

He added that complaints were received over the Daily Star's publication of topless Duchess of Cambridge pictures and pointed out that the Press Council in Ireland can only deal with third-party complaints and therefore couldn't do anything to stop publication of the photos, which was roundly condemned in the UK.

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